


Viva la Revolución

by bejesusness



Series: I heard a rumor that everything was okay [1]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Comic, Fix-It, Gen, Post-Canon, Rumors, Sibling Bonding, Some Fluff, Some Humor, apocalypse prevention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-02
Updated: 2019-03-02
Packaged: 2019-11-07 06:39:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17955476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bejesusness/pseuds/bejesusness
Summary: After the events of season one, the siblings travel back in time and try to figure out how to use their powers to prevent the apocalypse. But maybe Vanya isn't the one who needs to be fixed. Maybe it's their father.





	1. Main Story

**Author's Note:**

> warnings: drugs mention, suicide mention, murder mention, mind control or whatever happens whenever Allison rumors someone, picking on Klaus, a couple swears, it's all pretty mild imo
> 
> notes on ages/events: Five traveled to the apocalypse when they were thirteen. Ben died when they were sixteen. The events of season one happen when most of them are twenty-nine. I don't know if this is canon or not, but that's how it is here.

Vanya woke up in her bed, in her room, at the academy. This wouldn’t be strange if she hadn’t just been on stage ten minutes ago. Well, it seemed like ten minutes ago. It was actually sixteen years from now.

Vanya was thirteen again. She hadn’t attacked her siblings. She hadn’t killed anyone (the nannies don’t count). And she hadn’t caused the apocalypse. Yet.

She got out of bed and slowly opened her door, peeking her head out and looking down the hallway to see her siblings all doing the same. 

“We’re back. It worked.” Luther said in awe as everyone came out of their rooms.

“Talk about cutting it close, though,” Ben said.

“Ben!” most of them called his name and ran over to hug him. Vanya stayed a few steps away, but still smiled at him. Klaus stood beside her and put his arm around her shoulders. Of course he was happy to see Ben alive, but, well, he’d been seeing him for the past thirteen years when the others hadn’t. And someone needed to make sure Vanya was okay after all that apocalypse shit.

“What are you two doing?” Allison motioned to Klaus and Vanya, “Get over here!” 

They did, and all seven siblings were stuck in a big messy group hug for literal minutes. Eventually they drifted apart from each other, but still stood close enough for shoulders to touch, to hold hands, to confirm that they were all really there. They were all okay.

Diego looked around the circle. “So why did we all wake up in our rooms?” He asked the group in general, but it was obviously directed at Five, “I mean, that whole apocalypse thing, that really happened, right? It wasn’t just some bizarre shared delusion?”

Five answered, “We already existed once in this timeline, so I had to drop us into our younger bodies to prevent a paradox.”

Klaus nodded sagely, “Of course. Of course.” Ben elbowed him.

Allison started to say something but was interrupted by Pogo, who’d just appeared at the end of the hallway. “I don’t know what this fuss is about,” he said, “but you’d all better hurry if you want to make it downstairs in time for breakfast.” He squinted and hobbled closer to them. “Why are you all still in your pajamas?”

“Shit,” Diego said under his breath as he looked down at himself and realized that he was, in fact, in his pajamas.

Luther addressed the group, “We’ll talk later.”

They all sped back to their rooms and got dressed. They went to breakfast. Five didn’t argue with Dad. And he didn’t accidentally run away to the apocalyptic future. The day passed without a hitch.

*******

As the moon faded in and out between the clouds, the seven siblings stood in a group at the edge of the courtyard.

Luther, acting as the leader, opened the conversation. “We need to come up with a plan to stop the apocalypse this time around.”

“No,” Five said, “not stop. Prevent.”

Diego thought for a moment. “Well what started it in the first place?”

“Vanya,” Luther said without hesitation. Vanya flinched. Five put his hand comfortingly on her back.

“Actually,” Klaus said, taking half a step forward, “Vanya only went off the rails because Luther locked her in a cage and wouldn’t let us help her.”

“For the greater good,” Luther argued. “You’re not trying to blame  _ me  _ for the apocalypse, are you?”

“It’s not your fault,” said Five faux-nonchalantly, with his hand tracing circles on Vanya’s back, “but you are certainly a contributing factor.”

“I was trying to  _ save  _ the world,” Luther said.

Allison scoffed. “By abandoning her in that dark lonely prison!”

“She was scared,” said Klaus. “She just found out about her powers and didn’t know how to use them.”

Five perked up. “That’s it! Vanya, how did you find out about your powers?”

Everyone turned toward her to hear the answer, and Vanya shuffled her feet, feeling uncomfortable under the sudden surge in attention. “Uh, I guess Leonard manipulated me into situations where I would have to use them.”

“But how did he know you have powers?” Ben wondered.

“Lucky guess?” tried Allison. “I mean, he had all that stuff about us...”

A breeze blew Vanya’s hair in her face; she tucked it behind her ear, which gave her a moment to compose herself. “No,” she said, “he had this book that dad wrote, like a diary. When I read it, it told all about my powers.”

Allison’s eyes widened. “How would he have gotten one of dad’s journals?”

“What did the book look like?” asked Diego. “Maybe if we can find it, we can keep it safe.”

“Uh,” Vanya pictured it in her mind. “It was red with gold detailing. And it had his initials on the front.”

“‘R. H.’?” Ben said more than asked. He looked at Klaus.

“Shit.” Klaus ran a hand back through his hair. “I think I know how Lenny was able to get the book?”

Five sighed. “What did you do?”

“Well, see,” Klaus said, hands talking as much as his mouth, “Funny story-”

Diego cut him off as kindly as a person can. “Just tell us, Klaus.”

“Okay, so I stole this box from dad’s office to sell for uh… money. So I took out the stuff that was inside and threw it in the dumpster.”

“The book included,” Ben verified.

“Dammit, Klaus,” Luther spat, “you really would do anything for drugs, huh? Even bring on the apocalypse.”

“Hey, I’m sober now,” Klaus said in his own defense. 

“Yeah, because you’re thirteen again,” said Luther.

“I was sober before we got here. One, two, three,” he counted on his fingers, “Four days now. But you wouldn’t care about that, would you?”

“I would if you would take it seriously.”

The wind picked up and blew Ben’s jacket hood down, which revealed the full might of the scowl on his face. “Get bent, Luther. You can lie to yourself, but don’t try to fool us. You’ve never cared about Klaus.”

Allison spoke up, “Guys, aren’t we getting a little off track?”

Five teleported beside her and patted her shoulder. “Let it go,” he said. “They won’t listen to reason like this.”

“I’ve been by his side for the past thirteen years,” Ben continued, “Where were you?”

Vanya, and everyone else, knew what was coming next. “Please don’t,” she said.

Luther didn’t even hear her. “Dad sent me-”

“To the moon,” Diego finished. “We know. You won’t shut up about it.”

“So hey,” Allison tried again to get them back on topic, “What about that apocalypse?”

Luther selectively didn’t hear her either. “I won’t shut up about it. I was being a good son. Following orders. What were you doing, Klaus?”

Klaus was fidgeting badly. “I think Allison’s right. What’s the past compared to our impending doom, anyway?”

Ben continued to defend his brother. “Maybe he doesn’t make the best decisions, but he has a good heart.”

“He sold his sister out for drugs!” Luther argued.

“Accidentally!” Klaus raised his hands in the air. He turned to Vanya. “If I had known what was in that book, I swear, Vanya, I wouldn’t have ditched it. I’d have told you about it.”

Vanya nodded in acceptance. She believed him.

Diego took full advantage of the lull in the argument and spoke up, “Hey, hey. This isn’t Klaus’ fault. He stole the box the book was in, yeah, but how was he able to do that?”

Luther looked confused. “No one was watching him?” 

“He snuck into dad’s office and took the book, which he wouldn’t have been able to do if the man wasn’t dead,” Diego reasoned.

“Yeah,” Klaus agreed. “It’s the old man’s fault. As always.”

“How is it dad’s fault if he was dead?” Luther asked.

“He killed himself, remember?” 

“To get us all together to stop the apocalypse. That’s what you said, right?”

Klaus rolled his eyes. “Oh, now we’re listening to what Klaus has to say.”

“And thank god dad did kill himself,” Ben said with sarcasm. “Otherwise, we’d never have stopped the apocalypse- oh wait.”

“We did stop it,” said Luther.

“No,” Allison said, “it just didn’t happen yet.”

“Allison’s right,” said Five. “And might I remind you all that that is why we’re here. To figure out how to prevent the apocalypse. So Luther, get off your high horse. If you want to be a leader, fine, but you need to act like one.”

“Why am I the only one who gets called out?”

“Fine,” Five said, feeling much like the old man he is inside. “Ben, stop picking fights. Klaus, don’t let anyone talk shit about you. Allison, I’m sorry your brothers are idiots. Vanya,” he smiled, “You’re doing great. We love you. Diego… you make a good detective. Don’t get kicked out of the academy this time. Luther, you may look thirteen again, but you don’t have to act like it.” 

“Hey!” Luther cried, “You did me twice.”

Five powered on as if he didn’t say anything. “Now can we please get back on topic? How are we going to prevent the apocalypse?”

There was a moment of silence before Ben spoke up. “I’ve had an idea,” he said. “Hear me out. Why don’t we just get Allison to ‘rumor’ dad? Make him stop being an awful, abusive ass.”

There was another moment as everyone processed what he said.

Finally, Diego spoke up. “Well that’s thinking outside the box.”

Luther was affronted. “What, just change him? Change his personality; who he is?!”

“You’re right, Luther.” Klaus said, “We could be like a normal family with a father who actually loves us.”

“No,” Luther said in his leader voice. “This is too far.”

Silence again.

Five broke it. “We’d have to come up with the exact right thing to say or else it could all blow up in our faces.”

Diego added, “Like that story with the genie or whatever where you make a wish but if you’re not really specific and think it through it ends up being the opposite of what you wanted.”

“The Monkey’s Paw,” Ben said.

“And it has to be short, said Five. “If he figures out what’s going on-” he turned to Allison, “I don’t know exactly how your powers work, but I imagine that if he were to cover his ears and block out the ‘rumor’, it wouldn’t be able to take effect.”

“Yeah,” Allison confirmed, “the people I use my power on do have to be able to hear me.”

Klaus jumped in with enthusiasm. “We get Luther to come up behind him and hold his arms down so he can’t cover his ears.”

Five gave it thought. “That could work.”

“What about Pogo?” Vanya asked.

Diego answered, “We’ll ‘rumor’ him too if we have to.”

“No,” she said, “I mean if he figures it out, he’ll try to stop us.”

“We’ll need someone to distract Pogo,” said Allison. “And mom, too, just in case.”

“What about our training?” Luther asked, finally coming up with an argument. “If we change dad, who will train us?”

Klaus waved a hand dismissively. “We don’t need training anymore. We already lived through it once.”

“Well, look,” Diego said placatingly, “There’s no reason why we can’t still have training and the Umbrella Academy and stuff. We just want it to not be so damn traumatic this time. We want to spend some time as kids instead of soldiers and science experiments.”

“We could have a dad who’s actually caring,” Ben said.

“And supportive,” said Vanya.

“And kind,” added Allison.

“Who doesn’t belittle us,” said Five.

“Or pit us against each other,” said Diego.

“And not an emotionally withdrawn bastard,” said Klaus.

“So what do we all think?” asked Five.

“It seems like a decent plan,” said Vanya. “I’m good with it as long as Allison’s okay with doing it. I mean, it is her power.”

Allison looked at her sister and nodded. “I’m in.”

“Me too,” said Diego.

Klaus grinned. “Let’s give dear ol’ daddy a taste of his own medicine. Right, V?”

Vanya smiled at him.

Five nodded. “I vote yes, and I assume since you came up with the idea, Ben, you do too?”

“Yeah.”

“Great. Luther?”

Everyone turned toward him. “...I don’t think I can get behind this,” he said.

“Come on, Luther,” said Allison. “Don’t you want a dad who loves you?”

“Who’s to say he didn’t love us?” he asked.

“He sent you to the moon,” said Vanya, deadpan.

“For four years,” added Diego.

“All alone,” said Ben.

“In space,” said Klaus, “Where no one can hear you scream about being alone on the moon for four years.”

“Alright, fine. I’ll hold his arms or whatever. But I still think this is a bad idea.”

*******

The next day, shortly after lunch, Klaus and Vanya walked into the kitchen to find mom. She was busy putting away the newly washed dishes they’d used for lunch.

“Hey, mom?” Klaus called to get her attention.

Grace stopped, still holding a plate, and turned around. She smiled at them. “What is it Klaus? Vanya?”

“Yeah, uh,” he said, uncharacteristically shy all of a sudden. This was something they’d never done in the defunct timeline. Something they’d never asked for. If she said no, it wasn’t really a problem. They had a back-up plan. And a back-up back-up plan just in case. But between planning and coming to this point, he’d realized this was something he really wanted. What if she said no?

Vanya noticed him freeze up and reached for his hand. He held onto hers in turn and looked up, seeing her smile gently at him. 

She turned back to Mom, who was still smiling patiently, and asked the question for him. “We were wondering if it would be okay for you to help us bake some chocolate chip cookies?”

“We both have the afternoon off,” Klaus added.

Grace’s smile seemed to grow as she answered. “Well then I don’t see why not! Cooking is a valuable life skill. And a fun hobby.” She turned to put the plate down and pull out a recipe. “I’m sure we’ll all have a great time!”

“Thanks, mom.”

“Thanks, mom.”

Recipe in hand, Grace turned back to the kids. “Vanya, dear, you know where the chocolate chips are?”

“Yes, I’ll get them.”

“And Klaus, could you clear off the counter there?”

“Sure.”

*******

Diego and Ben had a bit of trouble finding Pogo. Neither had any idea what he actually did. Well, they knew he did butler stuff and help their dad train them, but there’s a lot of wiggle room within that definition. Diego thought it ironic; Pogo always seemed to have some super power that alerted him any time one of the siblings were about to cause trouble. He always showed up at the worst possible moment. When Klaus was halfway through his bedroom window. When Allison spilled a whole bottle of nail polish on the kitchen floor. When Diego got too pissed at Luther and threw a knife two inches to the left of his brother’s head. When they just got back from the near-apocalypse. Thinking about it, Diego found it strange that Pogo hadn’t showed up yet on his own. Lucky for him and Ben, but strange.

They finally spotted him halfway down the stairs. They ran up to meet him.

“Pogo,” Ben said, “Can you help us?”

He looked to them with a hint of concern. “Of course. What’s the matter?”

Diego hesitated a moment before answering. “I need help retrieving my knives.”

Pogo sent a questioning glance between them, but before he could say anything else, Ben grabbed onto his arm and led him down the steps. “Come on,” he said. “We’ll show you.”

-

“How on earth did you get them stuck in the ceiling?” Two boys and a chimp stood in the corner of the great room, staring up at the knives that were stuck up there.

Diego scratched his head, he didn’t know what to say. Pogo asking how wasn’t part of the plan. “I uh…”

“He was trying to juggle them,” Ben said with the exact tone one uses when they’re telling on their brother. 

Which probably made it more believable when Diego cried, “Ben!” Although really, it was out of embarrassment. As if Diego would do something so stupid. And get caught.

All the same, Pogo turned to Diego. “Master Diego,” he reprimanded, “knives are not toys.” 

Diego leaned a bit to the right so he could glare at Ben and caught him mouthing “Sell it”.

Diego sighed. “I know, Pogo,” he said apologetically, playing his part. “Can you please just help? I don’t want dad to find out.” He looked straight into Pogo’s eyes and put on his best sad, and a bit scared, puppy face. “Please.”

Pogo sighed and turned to leave the room. “I’ll go fetch a ladder.”

Only after they were sure he was gone did Diego and Ben bump fists.

*******

Seven minutes ago, Five transported himself and Luther into their father’s office to make sure no one would see them. Luther hid in the corner, which was a lot easier now that he was no longer a giant gorilla man, and Five popped into the closet, standing by as backup.

Their father would be coming in any minute now. They made sure they knew his schedule perfectly. After lunch, Reginald Hargreeves always stepped outside for two minutes exactly, looked up at the sky, sighed, then returned indoors. Unless it was raining that day. In which case he would stand in front of the screen door. He would then power walk to the bathroom, stay in there for about five minutes, and then go to his office. Including traveling time, this all took about ten minutes. Nine if it was raining. Today it was sunny.

They heard the door open. They heard their father’s footsteps as he entered the room. They heard Allison running down the hall to catch up with him. So far, everything was going according to plan.

“No running except for training purposes or on missions,” their father scolded Allison as she entered the room.

“Sorry,” she said, not sounding very sorry at all. “But Dad? I had a question about my powers.”

There was a brief pause. “Yes? Are you going to ask it?”

Luther jumped out and wrapped his arms around their father. As he sputtered and cursed, Five appeared at his side, crossed his arms, nodded to Allison.

She looked right into Reginald’s eyes. 

“I heard a rumor…”

*******

The Hargreeves family, the entire family, with a basket of food and fresh baked cookies, set out for the park. They had a picnic and played til the sun set. 

They all felt, in the pit of their stomachs, the feeling that very soon they would wake up from the dream and be immediately brought back to the nightmare. But over time, the feeling would fade. There would be no more of their father’s ‘tough love’. There would be no yelling. No torment. No neglect. No trauma. 

No apocalypse. No problem.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Continue to chapter 2 for a bonus comic
> 
> PS sorry for all the dialogue i dont know how to write anything else
> 
> I'm thinking about writing a sequel to this to fix-it Dave.


	2. Omake

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bonus comic!

Script: 

Panel 1:

Ben> Why don't we get Allison to 'rumor' Dad to stop being an awful, abusive ass?

Panel 2:

Diego> Or we could just make him jump off the roof.

Panel 3:

Five> Jesus Christ, Diego.

Panel 4:

Diego> He already killed himself once. What difference would it make?

Panel 5:

Allison> Changing his personality is one thing. But murder...

Diego> (pulling out a knife) If you don't want to, I can do it myself.

Panel 6: 

Five> I guess we could just be raised by Mom and Pogo.

Vanya> No. I don't trust Pogo.

Panel 7: 

Diego> You're right. We only need Mom. Everyone else is fair game.

Panel 8:

Luther> (wishing he was back on the moon) Please stop.

Ben and Klaus are playing patty cake in the background.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The quality isn't the best bc i decided to make this at the last minute whoops


End file.
